PIT BULL REPORTER Interview with Ed Crenshaw

For many years I (Bill) have been aware of the tremendous contribution to our breed and our sport made by Mr. Ed Crenshaw. In the sixties dogs of his breeding and those bred by others out of his bloodline were winning all across the country and were highly thought of and in great demand. Their ancestors are still having an influence on the breed today.

Unfortunately,as you will see, in some cases these dogs and therefor Mr. Crenshaw haven’t gotten the credit they deserve. Thanks to Mr. Crenshaw’s candidness in this interview some of that credit may now be properly assigned. While we cannot go back and change these dog’s pedigrees after all this time we can at least see what bloodlines they are really derived from and perhaps make more educated breeding choices.

P.B.R. : Hello Mr. Crenshaw, this is Bill with the Pit Bull Reporter calling to do your telephone interview. How are you, Sir?

Mr. C. : Fine, Bill, say, where are you located, anyway?

P.B.R. : I’m in central Arkansas.

Ed : I have an old friend that lives near you. Harlon Hobbs. We had dogs together back in the 50’s. He had a brother to Carver’s "Cracker".

.P.B.R. : Out of "Dibo" and "Black Widow"?

Ed : Yes. He also had a bitch he got from Howard (Heinzl). She was a grand-daughter of the old "Colonel" dog. Her daddy was sired by "Colonel", her momma was a sister to "Big Polly", "Molly O.", her name was,out of "Bambi" & "Dibo".

P.B.R. : Wow, that’s really some old blood, up close to the foundation of a lot of today’s dogs. Have you been to any shows lately?

Ed : One of the last shows I went to was up in West Texas. Les F. And his boy brought two dogs that were down from my dogs, in fact , they matched a brother /sister team against a brother/sister that a boy from Chicago brought down.

P.B.R. : Oh? That’s interesting!

Ed : In fact, all four dogs were pretty heavy of my breeding.

P.B.R. : Really ! It wasn’t by any chance some of that "Bad Ronnie" stuff Les and Rick had was it?

Ed : Yup. It was a daughter and son of his out of one of their old bitches. In fact I told Les that night that the dogs that beat you were bred very similar to yours. A boy in the Odessa area had bred this pair out of a bitch from around here sired by a dog from Las Vegas, a half bro. to my "Night Flyer" dog,, in fact he was closer than a half bro. as "Night Flyer" was 3/4 "Nugget" out of a bro. bred back to their dam.

P.B.R. : Do you remember the man from Odessa’s name?

Ed : Yeah. Alvin Hatcher. In fact he later loaned those two dogs to Gary J. He fought one twice and the other once. They were 3 or 4 time winners . I don’t know what Alvin did with them when he got out of the dogs.

P.B.R. : Was that pair pretty good dogs?

Ed : Yeah, the bitch was a real bad bitch. I think the dog was probably gamer but didn’t have as much ability as she did. But they beat both the dogs off of "Bad Ronnie" that night and it was later, about a year I think, that Gary used ‘em.

P.B.R. : I have some questions I’d like to ask you, if I could, some things I’ve been wondering about for years, in fact.

Ed : Yeah, that would be fine.

P.B.R. : I became familiar with your dogs from Pete Sparks’ magazine, such dogs as Gimp, Reno, Stu Fowler etc. And of course your dogs show up in some of Maurice Carver’s pedigrees. From those pedigrees Maurice seemed to be breeding your stud dogs to his Dibo/Black Widow bitches. Miss Spike,and Red Lady were bred to Reno, I guess when Leo Kinnard, was campaigning him, "Red Lady" was bred to "Stu Fowler" and Maurice had "Snow" on his yard for awhile but he didn’t seem to show up in many pedigrees.

ED : He didn’t have good luck breeding to "Snow" He missed as much as he hit with him.

P.B.R. : He just didn’t have puppies much huh?

Ed : Maurice didn’t. That’s why Bill Petri offered to buy him and offered Maurice a pretty good price for him in that day and time. I mean just an old dog; all he was good for was a brood dog . I think he gave Maurice 1,000 for him. He , ah, the first 8 bitches Bill, bred, (laughs) ever one of ‘em had pups!

P.B.R. : Well, that brings me to another point. It’s pretty well known that Maurice used to change his pedigrees up . I wonder what’s the possibility he was getting pups off of " Snow" and he changed them to something else like Bullyson etc.

Ed : I don’t know. He did that with some of my breedings but I don’t know if he ever did it with "Snow". But he did with some of the others that had my stuff that he didn’t show. ‘Course I knew it, Maurice told me. But ah, Leo (Kinnard) didn’t like it. He told me he said "I don’t know why you let that long armed son-of a-bitch get away with that". But ah , he did do it different times.

P.B.R. : I’ve always wondered about dogs like "Art’s Missy", "Stompanato"....

Ed : Yeah, now they’re not bred like Maurice shows ‘em. The top side on "Missy" and them is right. Maurice’s "Pistol" not the old "Pistol". But the bottom he showed "Miss Spike", he didn’t even have "Miss Spike" when that breeding took place. She’s actually out of a bitch out of my breeding that belonged to LynnWhatley, a bitch called "Ebony" and Maurice bred "Ebony" to "Pistol" and that produced that litter that "Arts Missy" is out of , ah Petronelli’s "Fox" and "Boomerang", all those.

P.B.R. Oh. Really, do you remember how the "Ebony" bitch was bred?

Ed : Yeah, She was out of the old "Goldie" bitch and "Sack".

P.B.R. : Sack? Is that Kinnard’s Sack?

Ed : Yeah, "Sad Sack", that was the first dog I ever sold Leo.

P.B.R. : Do you have any idea about some of the later dogs? I always wondered how "Stompanato", for instance, this pied dog popped out of "Black Shine" and black "Bullyson" and "Eli Jr." It seems kind of strange to me. Do you have any idea how he might be bred?

ED : Ah, "Stomper", he showed his momma bred a different way, ah I don’t know if it was his momma or grandma but the bitch Maurice called "Beauty". In "Stomper’s" pedigree he shows her bred different.
P.B.R. : She was what? A "Reno" x "Miss Spike" dog?

Ed : Yeah, She’s "Reno" and he showed her as what "Ironhead," I think (laughs) now that son-of-a-bitch, he never had a good dog! Any of the good ones you knew they weren’t his!

P.B.R. : "Ironhead’s" you mean?

Ed : Yeah, yeah and his dogs, if you knew "Ironhead", you knew his pups, if they were his, by just looking at ‘em. He was a big dog for one thing, I mean he was bigger than any of my stuff. He had bigger pups and also he had a distinct marking on his head and the majority of his pups carried it. Howard Heinzl had some dogs to come that color. The dogs that were close inbred, line bred on the stuff like "Dibo", they would try to come like a black and tan but they were brown and tan, kind of a brownish red with a lighter shading.

P.B.R. : Yes, he had kind of a clown mask.

Ed: Yeah he had that kind of a "V" shape on the top of his head and see most of "Ironhead’s" pups, that actually were his carried that marking.

P.B.R. : Uh huh, but he wasn’t much of a producer huh?

Ed : Nope, he wasn’t , now , I never liked him as a dog. We rolled him out with another dog down at Leo’s place I guess three different times when I was down there we rolled ‘em and I told him, Maurice wasn’t there, (laughs) and I told him I wouldn’t feed those big son-of -a-bitches for him! (Laughs) Because they fought like curs. Why they’d stand on their hind feet and growl and grapple for holds and things. Maurice managed to win two or three with him but he picked his spots. He was bred good see, I mean that type of breeding and Maurice see he was sellin’ breedings. He won a fight with him in Mexico and then he took him out to California and Freddy (Jones) won a fight with him out there.Well, Maurice whipped ‘em on conditioning. I guarantee you that the other dog was the better dog. But ah, that’s the time they got raided (laughs) they got "Ironhead" and "Gimp" both but Freddy got some guys and they got ‘em out. Ah, Maurice and Pat had gone on up to Las Vegas. They were gonna spend two or 3 days up there and Freddy called Maurice up and he told him, he said "I got your old dog out of prison." And Maurice said "You did?" and he said "Yeah, who can you get to pick him up in San Antonio?" And Maurice told him who and said "Let me know when you’re sending him." And Freddy said "Well you’d better get in touch with him now cause he’s on his way!(laughs) "He told him he’d already taken him down to L.A. airport and he’s on his way!

P.B.R. : That was nice of Freddy wasn’t it.

Ed : Yeah, that’s how they got him back. Now they didn’t get all the dogs but they got several and they got "Ironhead" and "Gimp" out. Now Freddy he had bought "Gimp " from Leo. Fred won two with him , first two, he lost the third fight with him which was his sixth fight. He was a Champion when he bought him from Leo and the sixth time up he had to ah, Ralph Greenwood was handling him, in fact Ralph had conditioned him, he had Ralph pick him up because ah, well he made his last scratch but that’s when he told Ralph to pick him up because ah, he veered and missed the dog and hit the side of the pit but anyway he won that one when he got confiscated they’d already had his fight and "Ironhead’s" both and they both won. But he died at Leo’s place, years later.

P.B.R. : Old " Gimp"did?

Ed : Yeah, Freddy called me and wanted to know if I wanted him and I said " no, I don’t Freddy I’m full up, I’ve got as many as I can handle" and he said "Well, I know you thought a lot of the old dog," I said, "I do, I think he’s as good a dog as I’ve ever raised "but he was no good at that time because he was , he fought four fights in 13 months. Freddy fought him to death! Leo had just won with him when Fred bought him from Leo. He’d just won, he’d whipped that "Gaboon" dog down there. From that time ‘til the third time Freddy fought him it was 13 months total, he fought 4 fights, hell, the dog was in training all the time.

Well, anyway you couldn’t fight him anymore and he’d gone sterile after his first keep, I still owned him then and Leo and I fought him together and later I sold him to Leo. Leo owned him the last two fights he fought with him. But anyway he went sterile. I’d bred one bitch to him before he was matched and that’s the only litter of pups he ever sired. After I brought him back home after the first match why that’s when I found it out. I bred a couple of my bitches to him and they didn’t take and some boys from over in Texas brought a bitch over and bred to him and she didn’t take. Now Leo he tried, hell he let guys he didn’t even like breed bitches to him. (Laughs) Yeah a friend of mine down in New Orleans told me that these guys had been up at Leo’s to breed a bitch to "Gimp" I said "I don’t think so," and he said "Yeah they did" and I said "Hell, Leo don’t even like those guys, neither one of them." And he said "Well they swear they did." And I said "Well I’ll find out next time I talk to him." So when Leo called me why I asked him. I said "Did you breed a bitch... " he said "Yeah to Hawkshaw." He always called Gimp "Hawkshaw." And I said well Jimmy said that they said they did but I told him they was lying because you don’t even like those guys. He says "Well, that’s right but their bitch might be the one that would hit!" (laughs)

P.B.R. : He just wanted some puppies off of him huh?

Ed : Yeah but he didn’t get any. Then after Freddy got him he had a vet. He was real high on him and he took him two different times . I don’t know evidently his sperm it would die before ... because I know Freddy called me that same time and he said "Mr. Crenshaw I want you to know I looked in the microscope today and I saw those little devils wigglin."

P.B.R. : Yeah?

Ed : He said "I’m gonna show you and old Leo Kinnard (pronounced Con’ ard) how to get puppies out of "Gimp." I said "Fine, I hope you do Freddy, you send me one and you send Leo one." And he said "I don't know about that." And I said " By god , I know , you’d better if you ever want to get a dog from either one of us again!"

P.B.R. : (I laugh!)

Ed : But ah, he didn’t. Fred bred two or 3 bitches to him and a couple of his partners bred bitches to him and they didn’t get pups. He sired that one litter and that’s the only litter "Gimp" ever sired.
VINTAGE MATCH REPORT (from JAN. -MAR.1969 "PIT DOGS" magazine)
Freddie Jones vs. Bill Reid Males at 42 lb.
Ref. Del B. Cajun Rules

Freddie using the Ch. Gimp dog bred by Ed Crenshaw. Gimp, a red dog, had won his matches in the skillful hands of Leo Kinard. Reid using "Dawg" a brindle bred by John Hutton out of old Sox and Flyweight. Dawg, known to be a punishing dog, has won one and lost a long hard one (1hr. 45min.) making no turns himself.
The dogs met in the center of the pit and danced a few steps on their hind legs then settling down with Gimp on the ear and Dawg trying to get a good hold on those short legs. The dogs wrestle and exchange holds from front legs to stifles and Gimp gets into the throat at about the three minute mark, pushing and biting deep, this is the basic action of the match as it continues, each time Dawg gets a hold he lays down and works from the bottom, as is his style.
The dogs swap out mouth holds at about the 12 min. Mark and Dawg loses a fang. They continue the swapping of holds with Gimp returning to the throat each time and Dawg working anything convenient. Gimp stays in the throat longer each time and Dawg shows signs of weakness, but gets a hand from his backers when he comes to his feet and works on Gimp.
Gimp gets the stifle then the stomach but Dawg gets him off and Gimp goes back to the throat. At 34 min. Dawg turns and runs, a handle is made and Dawg takes the count making Freddie’s Gimp the winner in 36min. Gimp makes a slow but straight courtesy scratch, the only kind he has ever had to make in his four wins.

This is the only part of the interview i have....does anyone have the second part of the interview?